Mackenzie Arnold

Goalkeeper (Cap #185)

Birthplace: Southport, Qld

Club: West Ham

Age: 29

Junior club: Burleigh Heads

Caps (Goals): 39 (0)

Has been waiting in the wings since making her debut in 2012 to step up as the starting goalkeeper. She finally got her chanceon world football’s biggest stage after a stellar year with West Ham United. She’s paid off the faith with 44 saves at thetournament so far.

Arnold is also hearing impaired and was fitted with hearing aids this year – but she doesn’t wear them during the game asshe is still adjusting to them.

Teagan Micah

Goalkeeper (Cap #212)

Birthplace: Moe, Victoria

Club: Liverpool FC

Age: 25

Junior club: Moe United

Caps (Goals): 14 (0)

Spent six months of this year on the bench with concussion symptoms after a serious head knock. Lifted the Swedish leaguetrophy in 2021 and 2022 with Rosengard FC and recently signed on with legendary Merseyside club Liverpool. Her great hand-eyecoordination comes from playing Aussie rules as a junior – making the move to football as a 10-year-old. But she didn’t pullon the goalkeeping gloves until aged 12, when knee pain forced her from the outfield.

Lydia Williams

Goalkeeper (Cap #138)

Birthplace; Katanning, WA

Club: Brighton & Hove Albion

Age: 35

Junior club: Tuggeranong & Woden

Caps (goals): 102 (0)

Known as the joker of the team, this proud Indigenous woman was inspired by Cathy Freeman to become an elite athlete. Thisis Williams’ fourth World Cup. She has won Australia’s PFA player of the year twice and goalkeeper of the year three times.Williams has played at some of the biggest clubs in the world, including Paris Saint-Germain, Arsenal, Chicago Red Stars,Houston Dash and Western New York Flash.

Steph Catley

Defender (Cap #177)

Birthplace: Melbourne

Club: Arsenal

Age: 29

Junior club: East Bentleigh

Caps (goals): 114 (5)

Fan favourite at the famed Gunners of North London. And her dog Calvin is almost as famous as her owner – thanks to the Instagramposts. Catley is the vice-captain of the Matildas and engaged to Australian goalkeeper Dean Bouzanis, who plays for Readingin the EFL Championship. The couple met while playing at Melbourne City. Catley also revealed at this tournament that herall-time favourite song is Strawberry Kisses by Nikki Webster.

Clare Hunt

Defender (Cap #224)

Birthplace: Grenfell

Club: Western Sydney Wanderers

Age: 24

Junior club: Grenfell Juniors

Caps (goals); 10 (0)

Has quickly become a key piece to the Matildas’ backline, but before being selected for the World Cup she had played justsix international games. Coach Tony Gustavsson scouted Hunt from A-League Women’s team Western Sydney Wanderers while lookingto add depth to his defensive line-up – and he didn’t expect to find someone who could just step into the role so easily.Hunt grew up in Grenfell and spent what felt like a lifetime in the car travelling to training as a junior – five hours thereand five hours home in the morning.

Alanna Kennedy

Defender (Cap #178)

Birthplace: Campbelltown

Club: Manchester City

Age: 28

Junior club: Campbelltown Cobras

Caps (goals): 113 (9)

The coffee aficionado of the team who loves to draw in her down time. Kennedy has just signed another two-year contract withManchester City – keeping her at the club until 2025. As a junior, Kennedy also did Little Athletics and she was a naturalat high jump. As a teen she had to pick between the two and chose to stick with football. Kennedy has almost 20 tattoos, eachwith a special meaning – they include her Matildas cap number (No.178), a Lara Croft tribute, the scales of justice and herdad’s favourite number.

Ellie Carpenter

Defender (Cap #197)

Birthplace: Cowra

Club: Olympique Lyon

Age: 23

Junior club: Cowra and District

Caps (goals); 66 (3)

Australia’s first international footballer, male or female, born in the 21st century – a record that has been broken numeroustimes now by this squad. Aged 16, she was the youngest competitor at the Rio Olympics and the youngest women’s footballerto compete at the Olympics. Carpenter left the rural town of Cowra at the age 12 to pursue her dream of playing football forAustralia. Her older brother Jeremy is also a talented footballer. As kids, the siblings would fill in the hours to trainingin the car playing quizzes and spelling bees against each other. Carpenter also speaks fluent French.

Clare Polkinghorne

Defender (Cap #140)

Birthplace: Brisbane

Club: Vittsjö GIK

Age: 34

Junior club: Wynnum Wolves

Caps (goals): 161 (16)

The most capped Australian women’s football player in Matildas history had always dreamt of competing at an Olympics – butin athletics. She was a national-age champion in sprinting and hurdles. Polkinghorne is also a coffee lover. Playing out ofVittsjö, Sweden, she can be found relaxing with a book in hand – her all-time favourite is A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara,which she describes as powerful, emotive and confronting. Polkinghorne admires Roger Federer for his ability to appear calmat critical times – something the Matildas will attempt to do in today’s quarter-final.

Charli Grant

Defender (Cap #214)

Birthplace: Adelaide

Club: Vittsjö GIK

Age: 21

Junior club: Cumberland United

Caps (goals): 19 (1)

Grant’s first Matildas camp was in 2021 in Sweden, when she sat next to Teagan Micah on the bus. Two years later it’s a pre-gameroutine-turned-superstition they won’t changing any time soon. Grant has taken more than 25 travel holidays with Micah, witha last-minute trip to Paris in 2022 her favourite. Grant doesn’t drink alcohol – not for religious reasons, but simply becauseshe wants her body to be the best it can be. Another to play her club football in Sweden’s top league.

Courtney Nevin

Defender (Cap #211)

Birthplace: Blacktown

Club: Leicester City

Age: 21

Junior club: Oakville Ravens

Caps (goals): 22 (0)

The first female to get her name on a trophy at Hawkesbury’s Oakville Ravens football club as a junior. Now a defender, Nevinstarted her footballing life as a winger, having asked her dad to build her a goalmouth in their backyard when she was a teenso she could practise her shooting. It was a team trip with the NSW U15 state side to watch the Matildas play at the 2015World Cup in Canada that inspired Nevin to want to pull on the green and gold. She now plays alongside 13 of players fromthat World Cup.

Aivi Luik

Defender (Cap #169)

Birthplace: Perth

Club: BK Häcken

Age: 38

Junior club: Palm Beach

Caps (goals): 43 (1)

The oldest member of the Matildas squad – and one who has no problem playing a supporting role. She enjoys her role off thefield with the team, making it her mission to check in on every player and make sure they are handling the pressure okay.She shaved her head after a friendly match against New Zealand in April 2022, raising $30,000 for brain cancer research afterher brother was diagnosed with the disease.

Mary Fowler

Forward (Cap #202)

Birthplace: Cairns

Club: Manchester City

Age: 20

Junior club: Leichhardt

Caps (goals): 40 (11)

Always known for playing in a pair of black gloves – a habit she’s developed since braving the winter temperatures in chillyManchester. Fowler says the gloves help stop her habit of fidgeting while playing. Fowler’s brother recently filmed a documentaryabout the rising star. Her sister Ciara is also a talented footballer player, with the siblings playing together at a representativelevel in their youth. Fowler is the youngest member of the Matildas’ squad.

Caitlin Foord

Forward (Cap #175)

Birthplace: Shellharbour

Club: Arsenal

Age: 28

Junior club: Warilla Wanderers

Caps (goals): 113 (30)

Now a winger or a striker, Foord started out as a defender. But her recovery from a broken collarbone as a 21-year-old transformedher physical profile – and her new-found strength coupled with her speed made her a perfect fit for the front line. In 2011she became the youngest Australian to play at a World Cup, aged 16. She is studying a Diploma of Nutrition.

Sam Kerr

Forward (Cap #168)

Birthplace: East Fremantle

Club: Chelsea

Age: 29

Junior club: Western Knights

Caps (goals): 122 (63)

The Matildas skipper only decided to play football after she was told she couldn’t play in the mixed Aussie rules team anymore.She’s the only women’s footballer to have won the Golden Boot award in three different leagues on three different continents – Australia’s W-League, the US’s NWSL and England’s WSL. She was the first and only Australian women’s footballer to be namedon the shortlist of the Ballon d’Or Feminin. And at the 2019 World Cup she became the first Australian player – male or female – to score a hat-trick in a World Cup. In May she stood alongside Manchester City superstar Erling Haaland as they collectedthe respective English Football Writers’ Association’s Footballer of the Year trophies.

Hayley Raso

Forward (Cap #179)

Birthplace: Gold Coast

Club: Real Madrid

Age: 28

Junior club: Banora Point

Caps (goals): 75 (15)

Raso is incredibly superstitious. She has to turn her socks inside out before a game and always puts her left one on beforeher right. The star forward will never be spotted playing a game of football without a ribbon in her hair. It is somethingshe has done since she was a junior, with her grandmother always making sure the ribbon matches her playing kit. After a successfulstint with Manchester City, Raso has officially signed with glamour club Real Madrid.

Alex Chidiac

Midfielder (Cap #195)

Birthplace: Sydney

Club: Racing Louisville FC

Age: 24

Junior club: Croydon Kings

Caps (goals): 28 (2)

Affectionately known as “Chids”, the rising midfielder is a fan favourite and one of only two South Australians in the squad,alongside Charli Grant. The former Melbourne Victory star now plays in the tough US competition for Racing Louisville in thetown that gave us Muhammad Ali. Chidac loves penguins so she’s very excited about Tazuni, this Women’s World Cup mascot. Herlove of penguins started after she was gifted a plush penguin toy at birth – named Mamma Penguin – and she still takes iteverywhere with her.

Tameka Yallop

Midfielder (Cap #148)

Birthplace: Orange

Club: SK Brann

Age: 32

Junior club: Mudgeeraba

Caps (goals): 115 (12)

The first Brisbane Roar player from the men’s, women’s and youth teams to score 50 goals, breaking the record in the 2019/2020season. She also scored a goal at her first Olympics appearance in Tokyo in 2021 – it was her second Games but she didn’ttake the field in Rio five years earlier. Yallop, who plies her trade in Norway at SK Brann, is a mum to Harley Rose, whois almost three years old.

Clare Wheeler

Midfielder (Cap #213)

Birthplace: Coffs Harbour

Club: Everton

Age: 25

Junior club Adamstown Rosebud

Caps (goals): 14 (0)

Clare Wheeler was just 17 when her mum was diagnosed with cancer and 19 when she died, and as a result Wheeler is a big fundraiserfor the Cancer Council and advocate for awareness of the disease. She only took up football at Adamstown Rosebud because afriend asked her to help make up the numbers.

Katrina Gorry

Midfielder (Cap #183)

Birthplace; Brisbane

Club: Vittsjö GIK

Age: 30

Junior club: Mt Gravatt Hawks

Caps (goals): 98 (17)

One of two mums in this Matildas squad, Gorry is the workhorse of the team. She has clocked up 43.84km in the first four gamesof the World Cup – the highest among the Matildas team this tournament. In 2021 Gorry revealed she had been battling an eatingdisorder – but pregnancy and being a mum to little Harper helped her turn it all around.

Kyra Cooney-Cross

Midfielder (Cap #210)

Birthplace: Herston

Club: Hammarby IF

Age: 21

Junior club: Bli Bli United

Caps (goals): 32 (0)

Her performances at her breakout World Cup have her being chased by multiple big-name clubs including Chelsea, ManchesterUnited, Juventus and Lyon. Cooney-Cross plays for Hammarby IF in Stockholm but credits her success to Gorry, who also playsin the Swedish league. She has won the A-League title twice with Melbourne Victory. Cooney-Cross has three sisters and herdad Jai was also a high-level footballer.

Emily van Egmond

Midfielder (Cap #172)

Birthplace: Newcastle

Club: San Diego Wave

Age: 30

Junior club: Dudley Redhead United

Caps (goals): 132 (31)

Van Egmond’s father Gary is a top-level football coach who will guide the Newcastle Jets’ W-League side this coming season.Van Egmond, Sam Kerr and Caitlin Foord have posed together for a photo at every major tournament since 2011 and this WorldCup was no different. Hot chips are her favourite treat, but lamb roast is her ultimate meal.

Kyah Simon

Forward (Cap #157)

Birthplace: Blacktown

Club: unattached

Age: 32

Junior club: Quakers Hill

Caps (goals): 111 (29)

The team DJ who’s is in charge of the music selection at training and in the changeroom before a game. Her go-to songs includeSydney Yungings’ Eshays and Shania Twain has also been heard at the training ground. In 2008, she became the first Indigenouswoman to score a goal for Australia. Simon famously scored the winning penalty in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup in 2010 – thelast time the Matildas won a major tournament.

Cortnee Vine

Forward (Cap #220)

Birthplace: Shepparton

Club: Sydney FC

Age: 25

Junior club: Peninsula Power

Caps (goals): 21 (3)

Grew up playing football in her brother’s team – her first time playing in an all-girls team was when she was selected forthe Queensland Academy of Sport side as a teenager. Vine was 2 years old when she watched Cathy Freeman race to 400m gloryat the Sydney Olympics and she told her mum Heidi, “I’m going to be faster than Cathy Freeman.” She wasn’t too far off. Vinehas excelled at many sports, including Little Athletics. The Sydney FC star is still to decide if she will remain in the A-Leaguewomen’s competition for next season or accept an offer to play overseas.